Cosell had some doubts in his heart, could it be that Zhang Yifei was in a bad state today?

In the course of the race, the driver's condition is often even the decisive factor, especially in the field of F1, there is no one driver who can absolutely crush the other drivers, every event.

If there is no absolute gap between technology and vehicle performance, the results on the track are nothing more than the state of the drivers at that time.

Zhang Yifei's current results are not bad, and he may not be out of shape yet. Coupled with the fact that this is only a qualifying match, Korsell rarely doesn't want to put pressure on Zhang Yifei.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, Zhang Yifei was a little too relaxed and did not force his strength.

In the second case, Corpor couldn't bear it, and he could accept that the driver was not good enough to lose the race. But he can't accept a driver who doesn't work hard, or doesn't dare to challenge, which is a coward in Kossel's eyes!

Yamamoto Ukyo didn't say anything after seeing Cosell's question, so he also glanced at the lap time on the ring screen.

It's just that compared to Koser's doubts and dissatisfaction, Yamamoto Ukyo feels that it is completely acceptable.

The track record is so easy to break, and this is an official qualifying race, not a test run by Zhang Yifei alone. There is no interference from opponents in the test run, and there is no pressure in the mentality, so it is normal to run faster.

It's like a sprint, many competitors have made breakthroughs in training, but it's not an accident when you're on the track and you're not as fast as you're training, depending on the wind, the rhythm of your opponents, the weather, and even the spectators.

Otherwise, why the sports world admires those big-hearted players is because they can resist all kinds of variables and pressures, and still play their strength.

Zhang Yifei's current lap speed does not look like he can't bear the pressure at all, and it can only be said that he is affected by objective factors, so he will be slightly slower than the test run.

But it wasn't a big deal, the rest of the runners were just as unhappy, and it was only the fifth lap, with a dozen laps to go. And as the number of laps increases, the car's fuel supply decreases, and the weight of the car will be further reduced, which is when the fastest lap can really be created.

In this regard, Yamamoto Ukyo was very optimistic and did not worry about Zhang Yifei at all.

But Zhang Yifei on the track is far less optimistic than Yamamoto Ukyo imagined.

Because he felt that the jerkiness of the gear was becoming more and more obvious, and even for a certain period of time, there was a slight jam!

Stuttering is a common thing for sequential transmissions, because racing cars don't pursue quiet, comfortable, and so on like people's vehicles.

There's only one thing you need in racing, and that's fast!

Therefore, the gearbox of the racing car does not consider the noise and the comfort of the passengers, and the pause is very obvious in the case of violent gear shifting.

But it's not the usual stuttering, it's a lag in shifting, or even a bit of a no-cut gear.

This situation was completely beyond Zhang Yifei's expectations, and he began to think that it might be mechanical wear and tear, and metal chips appeared. As long as these metal chips will grind into smaller particles over time, they will then deposit to the bottom with the transmission fluid and will not affect the vehicle's driving.

As a result, this kind of stuttering feeling is not something that small metal chips can do. But Zhang Yifei is not a graduate of auto maintenance after all, and it is no problem to repair cars or something, and the complex mechanical structure of the gearbox is impossible for him to find the reason at once.

As the race continued, Zhang Yifei pondered whether to call the pits and ask them what the reason was.

This is a common occurrence in Formula 1, where teams of drivers can use the sensors on the car to find out the current state of the car and then give advice to the driver.

At the same time, the driver can also name the problem of the car and ask the team to give a solution, if it really doesn't work, he can only pit and find a way to solve it quickly, if he can't solve it, he can only retire from the race.

However, Renault did not arrange the so-called pit stops, and once they left the track, it meant that they voluntarily abandoned the race and treated it as if they had not finished the race. So unless it is something that can be solved simply, Zhang Yifei asked in vain.

Racing car failures are very common in formula cars in this era, and the mechanical stability is really poor, Zhang Yifei can run three stations and test runs safely, without any problems, which is already considered lucky.

Of course, there is also the credit of Toyota's technical team, after all, this kind of top Le Mans professional technician team is a bit overkill in the junior formula, and the car overhaul can be arranged clearly.

Ten laps have passed, Zhang Yifei's lap time has not improved, and has even decreased.

At this time, Kubica, who had been following closely behind Zhang Yifei, found an opportunity. He took advantage of Zhang Yifei's shift acceleration lag when he came out of the corner, and directly kicked the floor oil to the end, surpassing Zhang Yifei's car!

This is not the first time that Zhang Yifei has been overtaken on the track, but it is the first time that Zhang Yifei has shown his strength at the Hockenheim Circuit, and it is the first time that someone can surpass him.

Even Kubica, who surpassed him, couldn't believe it at this time, because Zhang Yifei was very good at crossing the corner, and he couldn't find any chance to surpass the corner.

Originally, he thought it was impossible to surpass, but he didn't expect Zhang Yifei's speed to slow down after the corner, which made Kubica hopeful. He gave birth to the ambition to surpass Zhang Yifei, and he succeeded!

"What's the matter, how can Zhang Yifei be surpassed?"

"Isn't it normal to be overtaken on the track, Senna still has times when he is overtaken."

"But Fei is overtaken by someone after the corner, this basic acceleration operation, how can there be a mistake with Fei's strength?"

"Who knows?"

"Fly, overtake back, I want to see you get pole position!"

"Come on, fly, complete the miracle of the three-link position and show the other riders your terrifying dominance!"

Zhang Yifei was overtaken, which made the audience outside the paddock start to be a little commotion, and many people were surprised, but also many people thought that it was not a big deal, and Zhang Yifei would definitely be able to surpass it back.

There are also some people who directly cheer for Zhang Yifei, hoping that he can complete the "great cause" of the three-link position and set a record in the Renault European Cup again.

Inside the pit, the smiles on the faces of the originally relaxed crowd began to solidify a little after seeing the broadcast footage.

They basically believe that Zhang Yifei is stable in this game, and it is difficult for any accidents to occur. After all, the test run was 0.3 seconds ahead of the track record, which was definitely an amazing breakthrough, and there was no big problem with pole position.

As a result, the scene in front of him is really a bit unexpected, even if Zhang Yifei's state does not come out, he shouldn't run slower and slower, right?

Cosell finally couldn't help it, pressed the call button on the headset, and asked Zhang Yifei, "What is going on, why is it getting slower and slower?" ”

"There seems to be a bit of a problem with the gearbox, the gear shift connection is very slow, and there is even a situation where there is a jam and a second gear change."

"Something wrong with the gearbox?"

Hearing the news, Korsell turned around and asked Ah Hu and Chen Zhi: "How did you do the pre-game maintenance, and why did the gearbox have problems?" ”

Facing Koser's stern questioning, Ah Hu was a little frightened, after all, he was only a junior apprentice in a car repair shop in Guangshen before, how had he ever seen such a scene.

Chen Zhi was relatively calm, and replied: "There was no problem found in the pre-race maintenance, but at the end of the previous test run, we found that the gearbox synchronizer was a little faulty, but it was solved at that time." ”

"Something went wrong with the synchronizer?"

When Korcel heard this, combined with the current problem of Zhang Yifei's racing car, it should be certain that there was a problem with the synchronizer.

Sequential transmissions have many limitations, such as high transmission efficiency, fast gear shifting, and no possibility of misshifting.

However, the durability of the sequential gearbox is not high, especially the wear and tear of the synchronizer.

Because the function of the synchronizer is to make the speed of the vehicle automatically match the wheel speed, which is known to the old drivers who have driven the early manual transmission, if there is no synchronizer, the two feet must be clutched, so that the engine speed can match the wheel speed in order to hang into the gear.

Formula cars do not need to step on the clutch to shift gears, and the whole process is to maintain high speed shifting, so the impact of shifting is several times that of ordinary civilian cars, and these impact forces are borne by synchronizers.

Whether there is a problem with the synchronizer is not so easy to detect, and the formula car in this era lacks a lot of sensors, unlike any failure of the vehicle in later generations.

And there is one biggest difference between formula cars and ordinary vehicles, that is, the maintenance technician can't do it if he wants to drive two laps to feel the fault without sensors to determine the fault, and the car can't be driven by ordinary people!

Therefore, the overhaul of the formula car is purely based on the rich experience of the technician team to eliminate possible faults little by little. That's why the F1 technical team, even the most basic tyre change teams, needs to go through layers of selection, because the requirements for them are very high.

Ah Hu and Chen Zhi did not have this kind of experience, and when they overhauled the air shift after the game, they felt a little sluggish in shifting. However, this phenomenon was very small, and the subsequent test did not appear, so they returned to the hotel late that day.

As a result, I didn't expect that there was a malfunction after all, and it still appeared in the game!

"Fly, it should be a gearbox synchronizer failure."

Kossel told Zhang Yifei the cause of the failure, but he did not have a good solution, and the replacement of the synchronizer was equivalent to an overhaul. Unless you choose to retire and return to the pits, you can't deal with it on the track.

Synchronizer failure? Hearing this reason, Zhang Yifei's face was also a little grim, he didn't expect that the racing gearbox in this era used a synchronizer.

It is precisely because the synchronizer is prone to failure due to the impact of high speeds, and the later race-level sequential gearbox actually does not have a synchronizer, but instead uses a claw clutch with greater structural strength and a simpler and rougher clutch.

"Is there anything that can be done about that?"

Zhang Yifei asked Cosell, if it was determined that the synchronizer was faulty, if it was not dealt with, then the problem would become more and more serious.

Because the car is still driving at high speeds, the wear and tear of the synchronizer will increase, and eventually it will even be ablated or fail, and the entire gearbox synchronizer will be completely damaged.

In fact, there is already this trend, and Zhang Yifei began to feel that it was getting harder and harder to hang up, which could also be felt from his decreasing speed.

"Nope."

The answer came from Cosell's side, although he was a Ph.D. in aerodynamics, he did not have a deep understanding of mechanical engineering. But the synchronizer is one of the most common faults in racing, and there is no possibility of self-fixing, so the answer is obvious.

Just when Zhang Yifei was talking to Cosell, Suarez and Dixon both found out that Zhang Yifei was wrong and chose to overtake him at this time.

At the same time, such a scene gives a lot of motivation to other drivers. Because they were about to think that Zhang Yifei was invincible, but they didn't expect him to suddenly show such a weak side, it turned out that he could also be easily surpassed.

Under this encouragement, more and more drivers intend to surpass Zhang Yifei to prove themselves. And the lap time on the track has also begun to increase rapidly, unlike the deep despair before, now they have seen the hope of defeating Zhang Yifei!

"What should I do, did I cheat Feige?"

Ah Hu said with a crying voice at this time, since it has been determined that it is the fault of the racing gearbox synchronizer, then it is naturally the responsibility of the maintenance team, and it is impossible for the driver to repair the car by himself.

"It's our responsibility, we're sorry for flying."

Chen Zhi also said in a heavy tone, he is the eldest brother, so he should naturally stand up and bear it.

In fact, when the problem was found in the post-race maintenance before, it was already decisive to change the gearbox directly, so as not to leave the hidden dangers. It's just that they also know that Zhang Yifei is short of funds, and he came out of a small place like a car repair shop, and his thinking has not yet changed to the level of F1 spending money.

always thought that the little problem didn't appear, so there was no need to spend such a big price to help Zhang Yifei save some money. As a result, unexpectedly, the hidden danger turned into a vicious disease, which affected Zhang Yifei's performance.

However, the team members did not blame the two of them, because they all knew that a two-person technical team could not do everything.

Moreover, Ah Hu and Chen Zhidu have only been in contact with the formula for more than two months, can they be asked to compare with the chief technician with decades of experience?

Rather than focusing on whose responsibility it is, Kosell thinks about how to solve the problem.

The current situation seems to be a dead end, but in fact, there is still a faint glimmer of hope.

"Fly, in fact, there is another way to deal with it."

"Sync manually?"

Zhang Yifei didn't wait for Kossel to say the method, so he said it directly.

"Well, step on the clutch instead of the synchronizer to switch gears."

Theoretically, the sequential gearbox is a manual upgrade, but the process of stepping on the clutch is saved, in this case, the only option is to use a foot clutch instead of the synchronizer.

But there is another difficulty, that is, the efficiency of stepping on the clutch is very low, and if you want to improve, you must achieve a perfect shift speed difference, which is undoubtedly an amazing challenge, replacing mechanical calculations with human labor.

It can be said that this is not a solution, but only a theoretical possibility.

"The synchronizer did not fail completely, but it could not withstand the engine speed when there was a large speed difference. I can shift the paddles with a matching speed difference, and step off the contract step when the speed difference is huge, reducing the impact on the synchronizer. ”

"But it's too demanding to handle, and it's hard to do."

Kosell also knows the principle, but it is one thing to know the principle, and it is another thing to achieve the principle.

"I think I should be able to try."

Zhang Yifei gave his choice, since the problem has appeared, then he can't escape it, he can only solve it!